Ohsun Paradise

The semester is over. Final grades have been submitted. School’s out for summer!

It’s time to say thanks and ohsun to the wonderful people I’ve worked with for the past four months and to start my next adventure. But first a few words about what I’ve learned and done in the past month in Kosrae ….

The College of Micronesia (COM) With an average annual household income of about $15,000, most college students in Kosrae qualify for a Pell Grant which pays tuition, books and living expenses. Since COM Kosrae has no dormitories, students live at home with their families. Pell Grants provide COM students with the same food and housing stipend whether they live at home or “study abroad” at the main campus on Pohnpei. The students receive their Pell Grant stipend checks after mid-term exams. Can you guess what happens next?

Attendance falls after the checks go out because students don’t have to pass their courses in order to receive their Pell Grant checks, My fellow teachers explained that some students enroll in classes just so that they can get Pell Grant money. This creates a peculiar challenge for COM’s teachers. Classes have to be exciting enough that students will continue to attend classes even when they’re no longer being paid. I was lucky that Kosrae had a Total Solar Eclipse in April. Everyone attended our field trip.

The Lelu Causeway: I’ve been consulting with the Kosraean government on an environmental problem which started almost 50 years ago when a causeway was built to join the main island of Kosrae to an islet called Lelu. This causeway blocked 98% of the tidal flow that would naturally flush out the Lelu Harbor and Lagoon. Over the decades, the lack of tidal flushing has transformed a sparklingly clean lagoon full of corals and giant clams into a brackish estuary filled with silt, sewage and mangroves.

The World Bank came to the rescue — sort of — by offering $10 million to build a new causeway, designed by consultants from India. Although the new causeway will have sidewalks, crash barriers, conduits for fiber optic cabling, turning lanes, parking areas and sufficient strength for multi-axle semi-trailers, the tidal flow into the lagoon will still be more than 90% blocked.

Over the past three months, I’ve attended many meetings and tried to influence the design of the new causeway — without much success. Environmental issues seem to be secondary to progress and development. Although the causeway design hasn’t been finalized, I worry that the new causeway will not be what Kosrae needs or wants. Negotiating with the World Bank consultants reminds me of something written by a former World Bank consultant who retired to an island not far from Kosrae:

The World Bank sponsors privatization … which will lead to greater efficiency, which will lead to greater productivity, which will lead to an increase in capital, which will lead to more investment, which will lead to wealth and prosperity for all.

This is how the World Bank alleviates poverty one consultant at a time.

J. Maarten Troost, The Sex Lives of Cannibals

It’s an hilarious book, by the way. Highly recommended.

The Yela Ka forest: There are still a few places in this world that money and progress haven’t touched. One of these places is the primeval Yela forest on the north coast of Kosrae, It’s far from the Lelu Causeway and any other World Bank projects. It receives no government funding and is maintained and supported through private donations. An endowment was established by The Nature Conservancy and the Packard Foundation. I built the Yela Ka website and am now raising funds for some of the forest’s operating expenses, such as:

• Improve the dock and visitor center
• Provide safe and reliable transportation for our tourists
• Hire guides so that we can accommodate more visitors
• Sponsor school field trips and other activities for students
• Conduct community awareness and public education
• Promote sustainable ecotourism activities
• Prevent poachers and deforestation
• Eradicate invasive species

If you’d like to prevent “progress and development” in the Ka forest and preserve Nature as it is, I invite you to make a donation. Although GoFundMe takes almost 3% of your donation to cover their costs, all the rest of your donation will go to preserving and protecting this unique forest. It’s the only Ka forest left in the world. For more information about this amazing forest, please visit YELAKA.COM.

Happy Mother’s Day! Today, every church on Kosrae celebrated Mother’s Day. I attended the Congregational Church on Lelu and was treated to an inspiring choir of 200-250 men and women singing a cappella.

Click the play button above to hear a few bars of this morning’s closing anthem.

My bag is packed: I have my boarding pass for Monday’s plane. From Kosrae, I plan to spend a month island hopping through the South Pacific. The next time you hear from me will be from one of six island nations I’ve never seen.

My departure from Kosrae is just temporary. I’ve been to a lot of places all over the world and Kosrae is still one of my favorites. There’s a reason why this post is titled Ohsun Paradise. Ohsun is the Kosraean word for “See you again.”